


Animal Inside

by thecoldlightofday



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alpha!Shane, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Sex, Hand Jobs, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:02:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24221764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecoldlightofday/pseuds/thecoldlightofday
Summary: Shane has always ignored proper alpha relationship dynamics. Rick doesn't approve.
Relationships: Rick Grimes/Shane Walsh
Comments: 6
Kudos: 69





	Animal Inside

Shane comes back to the apartment they share at seven in the morning. His eyes go wide when he sees Rick sitting on the couch with cereal--awake.

Shane rubs the back of his head. “You’re up early.”

“So are you,” Rick says, turning his attention back to the television. The news is on, cheerful for a Sunday morning, no violent crime to speak of. It should be a good start to the day.

Rick can smell it. The heavy scent of alpha--different from Shane’s own. Shane’s scent is faint enough Rick never even really notices, he’s got a whole collection of odor-neutralizers and deodorants he’s taken to wearing. Has ever since they were teenagers. This smell, thick, obnoxiously overpowering, it fills the room and sends a prickle of panic through Rick’s body.

The urge to leave, to flee from an alpha’s territory is a powerful instinct to ignore. Rick blows out a long, slow breath until he’s calmed down.

Shane should know better. Going to alpha-alpha bars is dangerous. They both know how cops operate. Alpha-alpha and same sex beta-beta sodomy laws are still technically on the books. They may not be able to enforce them now, but they’ll bring someone in for something else--drunk and disorderly, drug possession, indecent exposure.

A night getting laid doesn’t seem to be worth Shane’s career.

“You can’t keep doing this.” Appetite gone, Rick gets up to dump his bowl of cereal in the sink. He goes around the opposite side of the couch, as far away from Shane as he can manage.

“Doing what?” Shane follows him, and the smell is stronger, Shane’s own scent coming through now--familiar, like the sea. “What is it you think I’m doing?” Rick hates when Shane does this, plays dumb, or plays like he thinks Rick is.

Like even a beta can’t tell an alpha’s scent marked him. Like Rick’s so blind he can’t see the hickies and bite marks on Shane’s neck.

It’s high school all over again. Shane showing up to use Rick’s pool with Maura plastered to his side, an unbecoming display for two young alphas. Rick, who has always known the good that came from a traditional alpha-omega house, had been shocked enough he slipped on the wet concrete and nearly fell into the pool. Maura helped him up and everywhere she touched him left his skin tingling.

“Let me get us something to drink,” he said, hoarsely, running inside for some lemonade.

He found his mother in the kitchen clutching a dish towel so hard her knuckles were white.

“Tell Shane,” she said through clenched teeth, “he is never to bring another alpha into my home unless it’s as a friend.”

Rick’s throat went so dry no drink could quench it. Even in the house, the air conditioning running, he felt hot. The full fury of his sweet omega mother’s anger was frightening.

He’d told Shane and Maura about it. Not to chastise them, but just a warning, so they’d know. They both got quiet. Maura put Shane’s shirt on over her swimsuit and asked to leave. Rick told them that wasn’t necessary, his mom would be bringing them cookies and sandwiches soon.

“Not hungry,” Shane said, a lie, because alphas were always hungry. He reached out and took Maura’s hand as they left. Rick never saw them together again after that. Shane made himself scarce around the house for a few weeks, and was never the same once he was back.

Alpha-alpha dalliances, those are an expected--though not accepted--part of social development. Young alphas, new to the dynamic, not ready to commit to an omega, form socio-sexual bonds and develop alpha behaviors together. By the time they reach maturity between 18 and 20 those relationships are supposed to peter out.

They had for Maura. She married Lori Faubert, who Rick was ashamed to admit he had dated shortly before she presented as an omega at 17. 

It’s different for Shane.

Shane’s never done what he’s supposed to. He’s never so much as looked at an omega, not even in high school when he could have had his pick. Shane stuck to the beta girls and Maura. Rick thinks it’s a traumatic response to a difficult childhood. Alpha-beta heterosexual relationships, though legal since the 50s, are still not common. Though Rick’s never said it to Shane directly, he thinks not seeing proper assignation dynamics has made it difficult for Shane to ever seek out a relationship. He just doesn’t know how to do it. It probably didn’t help that Shane’s dad left them for an omega when Rick and Shane were in junior high.

Rick carefully pours his cereal into the garbage disposal and runs it. Shane’s come in close to him now, almost against his back, glaring. Rick can feel himself shaking--close proximity with an alpha is always a little fear inducing. He bites his cheek through the desire to show deference, cede Shane the space. Submit.

“You’re going to end up arrested, going to that place.”

Shane narrows his eyes. Rick can smell his anger now, the hot tang, like metal left to sit in the sun. “Don’t start with this bullshit again, man.”

“It’s wrong, Shane. We both know it.”

Rick’s a beta. He’s accepted it, he knows exactly how his life will go. He’ll buy a house in a few years, he’s putting away money now while he and Shane share this crappy apartment. He’ll have his own place and he’ll meet a nice beta-woman to marry and they’ll raise a few children. Shane, if he can get it together, has an equally bright future ahead of him. He’ll get himself an omega, someone who wants nothing more than to raise his children, and he’ll be happy, the way Rick’s parents were, bonded in the way only an alpha and omega can. True love. Soul mates.

Shane, so close Rick can make out each individual tooth mark in his neck, huffs. “You don’t know anything.” The first several buttons of his shirt are undone, leaving it open, and Rick can see another bite over his nipple. It heats Rick’s face like summer. He has to look away.

Teeth bared, Shane growls, “when was the last time you went out with someone? Sheila, back in sophomore year?”

Rick ducks his head. He won’t meet Shane’s eyes when Shane’s like this. Eye contact with an angry alpha is a challenge. Rick isn’t going to give him the satisfaction of thinking this is a conflict he can win.

“This isn’t about me,” Rick says, putting some space in between them. He starts to make his way back into the living room, toward his bedroom door. “You’re putting your job in jeopardy Shane--is getting some knot really worth that?”

Shane takes a swing at him. Rick is barely able to duck it. Shane’s hand slams into a cabinet, dents the metal handle and warps the wood. Shane’s never had good control of his anger; too easy to work into a frenzy.

“Don’t,” Shane says. He puts both hands into his hair and pulls, one of those alpha management tricks Rick’s dad had shown him. Shane was hell the first few months as an alpha, moody and brooding, with no alpha at home to teach him.

“You’re better than this, Shane. You need to get yourself an omega, just try it. You’ll see it’s different.”

Rick backs up until he hits the couch. Shane’s unrelenting, he shoves Rick hard in the center of his chest, and Rick goes over the couch, tumbles off the cushions. He ends up on the coarsely carpeted floor. Shane on top of him, holding him down.

Shane is close enough their noses are touching. “You always act like you know everything. All that alpha-omega true love crap you cling to--you don’t know the truth.”

Shane stays there on top of him. Breathing into him. “And what’s that?” Rick asks, helpless.

Shane kisses him. Forces it on him. Rick tries to turn his face away, to bite, to yell. To do anything but this. Holds him there and Rick can’t help but feel it, Shane’s lips molding into his, the hot sweep of Shane’s tongue.

The feelings Rick has tried so hard to ignore come surging up from wherever he’s buried them. The faint stirrings of want, the tightness in his skin whenever Shane’s too close. They overwhelm him. He remembers this back from Lori, her omega scent, like cream and berries, it made his bones ache, his heart so fat with desire for her. He knew to ignore it, the siren call of the superior genders. Rick was no pervert. He knew better than that.

Now he’s not sure why he ever went along with it. The rules instilled in him by his parents, they’re nothing next to the gentleness of Shane’s mouth. Both of Shane’s hands cup the sides of Rick’s face. The tenderness surprises him, alphas, he knows, are rough, they’re demanding, they conquer. It’s thousands of years of evolution.

They break apart, gasping. Shane stays back. Waiting. Whatever point he’s making, he’s proved it. Rick brings him in for another kiss and they sit up. Rick grabs a fistful of Shane’s shirt to keep him close.

Shane, in true alpha fashion, sweeps Rick off his feet. He manhandles him, hauls Rick like he weighs nothing, tossed over his shoulder--a sack of potatoes. Shane dumps Rick on his bed, strips his shirt and pants, and dives onto the mattress to join him.

Rick mouths Shane’s neck. He licks the deep indentation of a bite mark. Soothes the reddened skin. Shane lets him, tips his head back, leaving his throat open, and Rick fits his own teeth there and bites, just a little, just holds his teeth there and his cock is hard. He’s where no beta has been before, an alpha prone beneath him.

“What do you want?” Shane asks as he tears Rick free of his shorts.

Rick doesn’t know where to start. He’s terrified, he has the horrible image of Shane’s alpha cock splitting his mouth. Shane looming over him, filling Rick with his come. Shane swallowing Rick down, using teeth.

“Uh…”

“Mhm,” Shane kisses Rick’s stomach through his shirt. Then he rips that off too. “I know. Know just what you need.”

Shane pulls Rick, now fully naked, against his side. He still smells faintly of other-alpha, but it’s fading, mixing with the scent of Rick. Shane kisses him, pulls at his lip gently with his teeth.

“Won’t be wet,” Shane says--an apology. He reaches for something in his nightstand drawer.

Rick swallows. He’s choking on the force of his desire, watching. Shane fingers himself open. He moves his fingers between his legs with practice. He’s done it before, Rick can tell from his movements, the arch of his back as he grinds down, the pink clutch of his asshole, the gleam of lube. The sound of it brings Rick to full arousal, the wet noises of sex, an alpha about to mount his omega.

Rick doesn’t know how he wants him. Shane tries to make the decision for him, settling onto all fours, and the sight takes the moisture from Rick’s mouth. Shane’s naked back, the hard muscles there, leading down to his waist and the spread of his thighs. It’s too much, the sight of that, and Shane’s hole, slicked like an omega, like a woman, Rick knows he won’t be able to stand it. He won’t last.

“Turn over,” he says, putting his mouth against the back of Shane’s thigh, feeling the slipperiness on his leg there. The proof of his lust for Rick.

Shane does. It’s almost worse than before. He can see everything, the purpling on Shane’s chest and shoulders where he let some alpha savage him. His taut stomach, the natural alpha muscle mass Rick will never have. Shane’s cock, flushed and huge, the thickness of it almost frightening. It’s too big for Rick to wrap around completely with one hand.

Shane stares up at him. His pupils fill his eyes with black. He’s a hard thing, dangerously beautiful like volcanic glass. “Do it, c’mon,” Shane urges. He folds one of his legs against Rick’s back and pulls in him closer until Rick’s between his legs. Shane’s alpha smell is strongest here, his dick fully prominent, and for a moment, Rick can’t do it. That last bit of instinct stops him. You don’t breed an alpha, Rick’s body knows this, and he is caught in indecision. To breach this final taboo the way he’ll breach Shane; it had been unthinkable to him less than an hour ago.

“Hey,” Shane says, soft. He brings Rick against him, their chests touching, cheek to cheek. Shane holds him there flush. Rick can feel the hard press of Shane’s cock nudging his stomach. It almost makes him feel sick. “It’s okay,” Shane whispers. Then he moves his hips in little rolls downward, enough that Rick’s cock bumps him, trapped between his thighs, rubbing so that Rick can feel where he’s wet and open, Rick’s cock lightly touching that hot, slippery place. Rick closes his eyes and lets Shane do it, tease their bodies together until, suddenly, Rick’s dick is sliding in.

Rick hears himself moaning. He can’t stop it. Shane laughs, and then groans, when Rick can’t help thrusting. A garbled sound comes out of Shane’s mouth and he spreads his legs wider, tipping his hips up to keep the angle, and says, “yeah, that’s it.”

Rick never could have imagined it would be this way. The feel of Shane. Tighter than the one beta Rick’s been with. Shane takes Rick so sweetly, so different from the resigned way of someone who expects it, who knows they were made just for this. Shane _chooses_ , wants Rick so much he will go against his nature. It’s a sight to behold--in the sunlight Shane’s glowing, his cock is flat against his belly, the beginnings of a knot forming, Rick can see it, the way it’s expanding at the head. Rick’s never seen that happen, not in person, he’s only seen the vague anatomical sketches from health class. He gets his hand on it, closes his fist over it, and can feel the change against his skin.

Rick’s impending orgasm becomes brutally apparent. He brings his hips against Shane’s hard enough it has to hurt him. Shane seems not to notice at all. His eyes are closed, he has one hand in his own hair, and his other hand is playing with the nipple that’s bitten, his fingertips digging down into the welted skin. Rick wants Shane to come first, he squeezes his hand down around Shane’s dick tighter, can feel the knot swelling, he rubs his thumb along it, just on the underside, and Shane’s leg starts shaking where it’s wrapped around him.

When Shane comes, Rick feels it. Not just in his hand, but in the way Shane clamps down on him from the inside, and Rick can’t hold out any longer. He comes too, seeks his relief in Shane’s body, and falls forward, spent. Shane takes his weight, rubs his hands along his back, coaxing shivers out of him. Rick can still feel Shane’s cock, hard, pumping more come between them. “So how long--” he starts, before Shane interrupts him.

“Just…” Shane pants into his ear. “We’re both going to need to shower. Let’s leave it at that.”

Rick yawns and rests his head on Shane’s chest. He hears his heartbeat, even and steady. He thinks, despite everything, the inevitable unpleasant conversation that will have to follow, he’s content to be here, in the secure embrace of his alpha, for awhile.


End file.
